Curriculum Connection
Updates, Information, and Ideas for DCSC Staff
February 18, 2020
In order to be respectful of everyone's time, I have broken the newsletter down into information that staff "Have To Know" and information that is "Nice to Know." In addition, I have tried to break things down further by grade level or subject area. Please ensure you read and/or respond to anything in the "Have To Know" section that applies to a grade level or subject area you teach.
If you find any ideas, websites, books, etc. that you think are worth sharing out, please send them my way and I am happy to include them!
Morgan Walker
Director of Academic Services
All staff that *may* administer ILEARN/IREAD3/ISTEP
The following staff HAVE completed TA training and do NOT need to go through the process below:
Amor
Anderson
Bertoli, Bethany
Boberg
Bowman
Daily
Dodd
Doub
Foltz
McDugle
Rawley
Rodgers
Russell
Swartz
VanSickle
Vrabel
Wilson
DCMS:
Bertoli, Bethany
Franklin
Hayse
Hill
McRoberts
DCHS:
Artman
Esslinger
Hammons
McKenzie, Stephanie
Williams
Wise
Test Administrator Training- DUE 2/28 (for those who *may* test students and are not on the list above)
Here are the directions for finding/completing the TA training. If you need any help, please reach out:
2. Click the ILEARN box to get to the TIDE screen
3. Click to access the "Educators" page
4. Click the “Test Administrator Certification” button
5. Enter your login- (school email, your own personal password).
a. If you created an account but forgot your password, select the “Forgot Your Password” link to send yourself an email to reset.
b. If you did not create an account, select “request a new one for this school year,” enter your email address, and check your email for a link to register. If you don't receive an email or it says you do not have an account, email Morgan Walker.
6. Complete the Test Administrator training including the short quiz at the end. If you can't complete the training in one sitting you can stop and the next time you log in it will take you back to where you left off.
7. When you are done, please print out the certificate and give it to your School Testing Coordinator (South= Kelsie, DCMS= Laura/Heather, DCHS=Pat)
Certified Teaching Staff K-12
***Setting up Schoology for a possible unplanned eLearning Day and/or our next planned eLearning Day on March 5th***
Now that we are beyond needing to use President's Day for the first snow day, we *may* utilize an eLearning Day for any remaining snow days. A few factors will be considered before a decision is made including how many we have already used, how many days in a row we may be out, etc. Even if we do not utilize an eLearning Day for an inclement weather day, we WILL have an eLearning Day on March 5th. This will allow our staff to receive professional development and keep the eLearning practices fresh for staff, parents, and students.
In order to prepare for an eLearning Day, please go through the steps below. Working through these steps now will ensure less stress for you the morning of the snow day.
Just like we did for the practice eLearning Day, all staff should add an "eLearning Day- Snow Day #1" folder to all courses students could access on an unplanned snow day (this means you would create it for both red/white day classes, each specials class during the week, etc.). When you create the folder, select to keep it unpublished (see screenshots below). The expectation is that all work is posted and ready for students by 9AM and all emails received from parents/students by 2:30 will be answered the same day.
This is where we will tell all students and parents to go to access directions for each course. It is imperative you add this folder. This folder may contain all links that students need or simply directions for students to access materials in your course documents found outside that folder.
I think the most difficult part about an unplanned eLearning Day is the content to put inside. We want the work to be timely but I know it's also easier to have some things created before the morning of a snow day. Anything you can do on the front end will help you out- you are welcome to add some of your directions now, or even add assignments that will be timely during the February-March timeframe.
As you are creating work for an unplanned eLearning Day, please keep the "lessons learned" in mind. If you would like me to look over anything, I am happy to do so. Send me the course/s you want me to look at and I can log in (I can see things that are unpublished, too).
Lessons Learned
- Be mindful of the amount of time your assignment for the day will take students to complete. If you give an assignment in class that is taking students longer than you anticipated to finish, you have the ability to adjust. Because you don't have this same ability on an eLearning Day, you may want to include types of activities you have tried before in class and you know are doable in a normal class period (or less). Our goal was for each class to take students between 20-45 minutes to complete.
- Every class that you devote time to during the day should have an "assignment" of some kind to complete. You can be creative with this work, but if there is not work assigned or it only takes students 30 seconds to complete, you are essentially telling parents you don't believe your class is worth spending time on (which we know is not the case).
- Parents (and sometimes students) get frustrated trying to access sites outside Schoology in the younger grade levels. If you want elementary students to access another site, please create detailed instructions (with screenshots if applicable) or even a how-to video and add it to Schoology. This is something you can create ahead of time and share among grade-level teachers.
- Please do not ask students to print something out at home. While we are able to provide computers to most of our students, many parents commented they don't have a printer at home and felt that they couldn't complete the assignment. If you have an assignment you want them to complete at home that is on paper, let me know and I can help you digitize it!
- Creating some sort of assignment, test, quiz, discussion, etc. in Schoology helps staff to take attendance after the fact. If you want something turned in, Schoology is easier than email because you can easily track who has completed the assignment and who hasn't.
- Parents would love a checklist, if possible, at the elementary level. This would help parents understand what is expected of students and when they have completed things.
- Video instructions are really appreciated! Parents commented that they really loved videos walking them through directions and/or explaining concepts! There's just something about hearing it from a teacher's voice that makes an impact!
- You are all amazing! (Duh!) :-) SO many parents commented on the survey that they can't believe our teachers work with an entire class of students every day- when they were struggling at times to get work done with just their one child. Props to each of you!
Classified Staff
Unplanned eLearning Day
For unplanned eLearning Days (snow days, for example), classified staff members that do not work 260 days will not report. All 260-day employees are required to work (unless a level three snow emergency is declared by Hendricks County and non-emergency personnel are not allowed on the roads). A makeup option is available for up to two days. All staff must have prior approval to make up this time and supervisors will keep a record of completion of hours.
Please see the chart below for information regarding classified staff guidelines as they stand now for unplanned eLearning days (snow days, for example):
Educators in the District with a Valid Teaching License
ILEARN Scoring Opportuntiy
As you may already be aware, Indiana legislation allows for educators to participate in the scoring ILEARN items during the spring test administration. In Spring 2019, 332 Indiana educators helped score ILEARN assessments! It is our hope that more Indiana educators participate during the Spring 2020 ILEARN test administration.
We do not have any record of educators from our corporation scoring ILEARN items last spring. The online application opened earlier this week and continues through March 16. If you are interested, please see the flyer below!
Elementary Math Teachers (K-6)
12 Math Rules That Expire in the Middle Grades
"Many rules taught in mathematics classrooms “expire” when students develop knowledge that is more sophisticated, such as using new number systems. For example, in elementary
grades, students are sometimes taught that “addition makes bigger” or “subtraction makes smaller” when learning to compute with whole numbers, only to find that these rules expire when they begin computing with integers (Karp, Bush, and Dougherty 2014). However, middle-grades students, especially those who are struggling, often try to force-fit the rules that they remember from the elementary grades to new concepts or skills.
In this article, we present 12 persistent rules that expire. These are “rules” that we have found prevalent in our many years of working with students, from mathematics education literature,
or in some cases, rules that we ourselves have taught and later regretted.
In each case, we offer mathematically correct and more helpful alternatives."
All Staff (probably grades 2 and up)
HOCHMAN’S ‘BUT, BECAUSE, SO’ SENTENCE EXPANSION ACTIVITY
Been reading through Judith Hochman’s Teaching Basic Writing Skills. Very compelling! In it, she describes the power of writing as the most rigorous and challenging skill to learn, and wisely advises intense, consistent intentionality in teaching it- that is, not just having kids ‘write a lot’ but having them learn to create the basic forms of writing, especially the sentence, in a methodical progression that shows them how and has them complete exercises repeatedly until fluid.
An example of a productive exercise she suggests is “But, Because, So” in which students are asked to take a short independent clause and expand upon it using each of these three conjunctions. Hochman advocates using a range of “sentence expansion” exercises like this to build literacy and thinking skills. One of the benefits is that it causes students to think about different ways they might develop the same clause. Another is that it causes students to get familiar and fluid with syntactical forms they will use over and over. A third is that “exercises” like this are best when they are applied… that is when they are used to process what students are already learning in class. Any class. So they can and should use this exercise across the curriculum.
So for example you might ask students to use it in science class to add to this sentence: A solid melts to form a liquid.
And they might write:
- A solid melts to form a liquid, but it can also sometimes sublimate to form a gas.
- A solid melts to form a liquid because heat or pressure causes the ordering of molecules to break down.
- A solid melts to form a liquid so a glacier is really water waiting to happen.
And as you are perhaps noticing, this is an outstanding review and assessment of students’ knowledge of phase change. I’m thinking about it as a potential Exit Ticket and find it kind of promising.
Meanwhile over in History class you could have students start with: Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was just 272 words long. Their “But, Because, So” might look like this:
- Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was just 272 words long, but they have been among the most memorable words in American History.
- Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was just 272 words long because he wanted to express humility, directness and simplicity.
- Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was just 272 words long so some people didn’t even realize the speech had begun when he finished!
So- in honor of this simple powerful tool here’s my “But, Because, So” on “But, Because, So”:
“But, Because, So” is powerful.
- “But, Because, So” is powerful, but the best part is that it gets more productive the more you use it.
- “But, Because, So” is powerful, because it forces students to expand their thinking with precision, clarity and variety.
- “But, Because, So” is powerful, so encourage teachers to use it in every academic discipline.
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DCSC Curriculum Connection
Contact: Morgan Walker, Director of Academic Services
Email: mwalker@danville.k12.in.us
Website: www.danville.k12.in.us
Location: 200 Warrior Way, Danville IN 46122
Phone: (317) 745-2212
Twitter: @walker8208